Police visited home before deadly raid

Four days before the deadly raid at the home of John Hirko Jr., the suspected drug dealer and his fiancee had a visit by Bethlehem police. But this visit was not violent, just a little odd.

It happened as Hirko and his fiancee, Kristin Fodi, were celebrating her birthday, according to testimony in federal court Wednesday. Their friend, Lisa Baran of Bethlehem, also was there.

As they were about to cut the birthday cake, a uniformed police officer knocked on the kitchen door, Baran told a jury in Allentown. He stepped into the house and looked around. And he asked about a 1989 black Volkswagen Jetta that was parked outside on Christian Street.

Baran told the jury that she identified the car as hers. The officer claimed that the car had rolled into another car and he took her outside to look at it.

But when she got there, nothing was wrong, according to Baran. The Jetta was parked just where she had left it, with its front wheels turned toward the curb to prevent it from rolling down the hill.

The Jetta was not damaged, she testified. And there were no cars parked directly in front or in back of the Jetta.

''I was very concerned considering my car was in the exact spot I had parked it in,'' she testified.

Baran never got an explanation about the encounter with police.

But lawyer John Karoly Jr., pursuing a civil rights suit against the police, claims police were there as a ruse  to secretly inspect the house so they could prepare to search it for drugs. Police needed to know the layout of the house before they could plan the safest possible entry.

Karoly also has said in court documents that, by letting in the police officer that day, Hirko showed he would have voluntarily allowed police to search the premises days later  if police had asked. Instead, police forced their way into the house, prompting gunfire.

Hirko's family, fiancee and landlord allege that police illegally shot Hirko to death and accidentally set fire to his rental home. Fodi escaped from the burning house through a second-floor window. Police contend Hirko fired before they did.

Baran was the first witness called by Karoly who was not a Bethlehem police officer. Until Wednesday, he had called 13 consecutive officers  all defendants  since the trial started Sept. 25.

Baran, who works for a mortgage title company, went to Bethlehem Catholic High School with Fodi. And she supervised Hirko at a telemarketing company.

Baran also testified about the morning after the police raid, which occurred late April 23, 1997. A police officer called her at home at 5:30 the next morning, asking her to pick up Fodi. Police had been questioning Fodi.

When Baran arrived, Fodi was covered head-to-toe in black soot, she was barefoot, her hair was matted, her eyes were red and puffy and she was coughing and shaking, Baran testified. Fodi also was in a ''trance-like state.''

After Baran asked what had happened, Fodi was ''mumbling incoherently,'' according to Baran, whose voice was becoming emotionally strained on the witness stand.

Baran took Fodi to Baran's home, where Fodi curled up on a bed in a fetal position. Fodi slept for two or three hours, Baran testified.

After Fodi awoke, she told Baran ''bits and pieces'' of the story, but was still incoherent, Baran testified. Fodi referred to ''gunfire'' and a ''fire'' and ''men in black all around my house, in my house.''

Most of the police officers have acknowledged wearing black outfits during the raid with no identification.